Curricula, Unit Studies, and Syllabi! Oh, My!

It's that time of year again.

I got the letter from the school board today - although a response isn't due until August 15th. The letter requests that I verify my credentials, my daughter's progress, and - most importantly - submit my curriculum for next year.

There is no autopilot setting for homeschool education. You don't get a report card passing your child up the line to the next grade and then focus on reservations for summer camp.

No.

This is the time when homeschooling parents are scouring the internet for the best deals and most appropriate approaches for teaching our kids. Decisions have to be made in the next couple of months: where, how, and with what will we be educating our children? We have to think about content, too. How closely will we follow a set curriculum? How much will we supplement? Where are we going to get the money for all this?

These are the questions that come in late spring and early summer, along with the "for sale" notices on the materials we used last year.

It's one huge, educational swap meet!

So, what are the options?

There is "school in a box." Complete sets of materials, heavy on the computer work and on worksheets. These are often organized along traditional content area classes and focus on mastering reading, writing, and arithmetic in the early grades.

Then there are the looser, more flexible curricula that are designed to facilitate tailoring to the child's needs. While these still tend to center on the traditional content classes, they also work at integrating them. Boundaries blur and skills are applied across the curriculum.

Then there are unit studies. Themes are used to explore a variety of skills. Planning an imaginary trip out to California in a covered wagon can involve math, science, art, history, and literature.

Finally there is the choice to "unschool." Teaching as topics come up, and as the child shows interest. The parent acts as a facilitator, resource, guide, and cheerleader rather than as a traditional teacher.

Which approach is best for you? Most likely it will be a combination.Certainly, I've used elements of all of them this year.

I'm going to be looking at each of them in a bit more depth over the next few postings as I look to how we will be structuring our homeschool time next year. The Girl's self motivation will have to be encouraged as it is likely that I will be working nearly full time and it will be Grandma taking her to the library and looking over the first drafts of her papers.

Who said we get a break for summer?

Oh, right - NO ONE.

Year-round schooling?

It is interesting to me that I find the idea of the summer off from school to be much less appealing than it has been in the past - and I don't just mean because I am not the student anymore. When The Girl was in public school I craved the freedom from homework and worksheets just as much as she did, but this summer is different.

The Girl is looking forward to this idea of "no school" just as much as she ever has. Yet, she discusses the fact that she is going to start her Japanese studies this month, as well as sign up for community art classes, as if this weren't studying.

I think that she is still in a public school mindset, so I haven't pointed out to her that she is, in fact, opting for year round schooling. She would be outraged at the "loss" of her free time.

The thing is, she is choosing what to study. She's had some say in her studies all year, but for summer, she really gets free rein. This leads me to think that the fun of summer isn't so much the free time, as the freedom of choice - something that we get year-round with homeschooling!

One Step Closer to the Beginning

The Girl persists in the theory that we don't start "school" until September 3rd. This despite the lesson on how fractions and percents relate to each, which she started and which took up most of our lunch time the other day.

Shhhhhh. Just don't tell her she's learning.

;-)


Anyway. We are planning our first fieldtrip for sketching a livable, but uninhabited area. This will eventually work its way up to being the basis for our model and for discussing our local geography. My friend D. who also homeschools, will be bringing her two kids and we're going out to the pond that my mom lives on.

I'm excited, but I hope the The Girl's overwhelming need for perfection doesn't freeze her up when she's sketching. I'm debating on bringing a camera. She loves taking pictures, but I'd really like her to sketch as well.

If she learns one thing this year, I want her to learn that she can fail and the world won't end. She can be less than perfect, and it might still be fun.

She's already got the fractions and percents down, but the perfection issues are much more challenging.

How to start the homeschool year, without starting school

Next week, I go back to school (I teach part time, and we go back WAAAAYYYY before the kids do). So school has been on my mind.

I'm itching to start our homeschool routine. The Girl, on the other hand, is offended by the very IDEA that we might start homeschool before all the other kids start regular school. She is very much stuck on the calendar, still, and I can understand that since this is the first year we have homeschooled at all.

Rather than push it on her, I have just gotten out some of our cool new curriculum items and started planning for our first week. It took about two seconds for The Girl to come and look over my shoulder.

"What's that?" (Points to picture in Oak Meadow text)

"That's part of the instructions for the model we are going to build for your social studies lessons." ( I continue making notes.)

"Huh." (Looks completely indifferent... and yet does not walk away.) "What're those?" (points to stack of sketchpads)

"Those are going to be your main lesson books and journal. That's where you'll have your writing and stuff. And you get to write everything in colored pencils."

"Cooooooool." (Eyes light up and she fingers the paper.)

"Hey, remember we don't get to start until September!" (I start putting things away.)

"Oh, right." (Long pause.) "Can I just look at the math book for a little bit?"

"Well, okay, but just look through it. We aren't starting school yet."

What followed was a 45 minute review of place values, how to do math in your head and check it with a calculator, and an introduction to double digit multiplication.

Bwahahahahaha!

My evil plan is working!